Turnover twist modules wherein sheets of material are directed linearly along a spiral path typically affected by a series of twisted belts or chords. While such twist modules retain the respective leading and trailing edge position of the sheet material, such modules require a lengthy axial path to change the face-up/face-down orientation of the sheet material. Furthermore, twist modules are less reliable when handling stacked collations inasmuch as the stacked sheets tend to skew as they follow the spiral path. Belt or cord turnover twist modules are prone to mark or damage mail items particularly thick mail items. Moreover, such twist modules are not reconfigurable to handle straight runs wherein sheet material inversion is not required. Consequently, another module must be introduced in place of the twist module to reconfigure the sheet material handling equipment. Turnover modules that flip the mail item side for side result in the flap hinge line changing sides. This requires significant modifications to the downstream processing and printing systems.
Hence a need exists for an improved apparatus for transporting and overturning/inverting material, including a mail item, such that the leading and trailing edges of the mail item are exchanged relative to the conveyance feed path.